Just End The Season
After the New York Jets Week 1 beatdown at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens in mid-September, I wrote an article about whether or not it was time to stop being a Jets fan. Entering into this season, after all, the Jets hadn’t made the playoffs in 11 straight years, and I didn’t want to endure another lost season followed by yet another rebuild. I wrote about how badly I wanted this team to turn it around and become competitive again, and that I was tired of being the “same old Jets.”
And then, something magical happened. The football gods seemed to answer prayers from New York fans that had gone unanswered for over a decade. The Jets early season was flipped on its head, and the Jets won four of their next five games, including three road wins and a win over the division-rival Miami Dolphins. I wrote another article titled, “The Jets Are Actually Good?!”
In that piece, I rejoiced that the Jets weren’t just competitive, they were winning games too, being led by rookies, Breece Hall and Sauce Gardner. The Jets were embracing their underdog mentality – they had turned it around and the future suddenly looked bright. In the three weeks following that article, before the team’s bye week, the Jets won two out of three games. Entering the bye, the Jets were 6-3. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Jets fans were happy.
But the football gods can be very, very cruel. Because it was all part of an awful trick. These were, in fact, the “same old Jets.” The feelings of hope and promise Jets fans had felt throughout October soon gave way to feelings of despair and misery.
Now, as I write this in January of 2023, the Jets have lost five in a row. They have one game left to play, but the playoffs won’t be in the cards for Gang Green for a twelfth consecutive year. My worries in the first article I wrote were justified. The idea of the Jets being anything more than a dumpster fire of an organization is laughable.
Robert Saleh & Joe Douglas: Should Either Be Fired?
Neither head coach Robert Saleh or general manager Joe Douglas will likely be fired right after this season, but, in reality, firing either would be totally fair. Both present themselves as intelligent and respectable football minds, but this is a results oriented league, and the results from either man don’t look too good at the moment.
Over his first two seasons, Saleh has shown himself to be nearly as big a loser as his predecessor, the often-befuddled, Adam Gase. Gase went 9-23 before being fired. With one game remaining this season, Saleh has a record of 11-22, and he’s coaching a team that has (supposedly) more talent than the squad Gase presided over.
For all of his smart interview answers, perhaps Saleh is better suited running the stairs before games to pump himself up as a defensive coordinator in a less critical sports town.
As for Douglas, he’s now had three drafts as GM to reshape the team with players he believes can contribute. While he deserves credit for drafting stars like Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner (and Breece Hall, who was fantastic before getting injured), that’s outweighed by how awful his 2020 and 2021 drafts look now.
Douglas selected 19 players in those two drafts. Out of all those picks, Alijah Vera-Tucker looks solid (assuming he comes back fine from his injury) and Michael Carter II is a serviceable nickel corner. Every other pick is poor. The third best player of the 19 is probably Elijah Moore and he had under 500 receiving yards and 1 touchdown this year.
One could also argue that by drafting Wilson at No. 2 overall, and banking on Wilson as the team’s franchise quarterback, Douglas should share the same fate Wilson might, and be jettisoned after this season.
Welcome to Quarterback Hell
Speaking of the quarterback position, it doesn’t look too promising for the Jets. When the player the team selected second overall is being benched for the likes of Mike White and Chris Streveler, it’s crystal clear that even the Jets coaches (who want nothing more than for Wilson to succeed) realize that he’s basically a stinky turd.
There is zero indication that Wilson has the talent to compete on an NFL level. Out of the 33 quarterbacks that qualify for the NFL’s passer rating stat, Wilson ranks dead last (72.8). He’s also last in completion percentage (54.5%). The only thing Wilson seems good at is being generally unlikeable and getting his teammates to not want him to be their starting quarterback.
Fans had a glimmer of hope with the promise of Mike White, but after the game in Seattle this past Sunday, it’s pretty clear he just isn’t NFL starter material. The Jets don’t have a quality starting quarterback on the roster.
The idea of getting an experienced NFL QB like Derek Carr, as opposed to drafting yet another quarterback, might seem enticing, but it’s important to remember that there’s a reason all of these types of quarterbacks the Jets could get are available. Carr threw nine interceptions over five games before being benched this past weekend. He’s not going to be the Jets savior.
There really just aren’t any great options as to what to do with the quarterback position going into next season. Can Zach Wilson be “fixed” or should the Jets cut their losses? Should the Jets draft a QB with what could end up being a top 10 pick or go out and get a Gardner Minshew/Jimmy Garoppolo-type player? One things for sure though, I definitely don’t trust the organization thats most recent quarterback analysis resulted in the drafting of Zach Wilson with the second overall pick to make the right decision.
Sell the Team, Woody
This article wouldn’t be complete without my mentioning that the common factor of all these awful Jets teams over the years has been the owner, Woody Johnson. After buying the Jets in 2000, Johnson settled on Al Groh as head coach since he couldn’t get Bill Parcells to stick it out for another year. Groh lasted one year before pursuing other opportunities and the team went 9-7.
It is totally insane that every single Jets coach since Groh has coached the team to a losing record before being fired. That’s Herm Edwards, Eric Mangini, Rex Ryan, Todd Bowles, Adam Gase, and (currently, not yet fired) Robert Saleh. Woody Johnson as the owner and final authority is what all these failed coaches have in common.
New York Mets fans (most of whom also root for the Jets) realize how a new owner can totally change the outlook for an organization. Please, Woody, sell the team now and just pursue politics!
Where Do We Go From Here?
As we look into our NFL crystal ball, the future of the New York Jets looks bleak. The Jets will have to face the AFC West and NFC East next year, which is probably the two divisions in the league you’d least want to go up against. Jets fans might not get to watch excellent quarterback play from their own team, but they’ll get to see it when Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Justin Herbert come to town.
This Jets season, no matter what happens in Week 18, cumulatively was a disaster, there was just a little bit of fool’s gold for added torment thrown in. I wrote in that first Jets article about whether it’s time to stop being a Jets fan, and after this miserable season, I just don’t know. Being a Jets fan is just a part of who I am and I’m not sure it’s something that I can ever really turn off or change. How does that saying go though? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... Oh, I forget the rest of it.